National Dialect Festival 2020 – The Lakeland Dialect Society

PLEASE NOTE – EVENT CANCELLED

See following communication from event organisers:

Dear Friends,

I am sorry to inform you that the Lakeland Dialect Society has taken the decision to cancel the National Dialect Festival due to be held in October.

We have held lengthy discussions and included the Festival founder Sid Calderbank in these.

There are two main reasons:

1)  The uncertain future of Newton Rigg College which was to be the first choice venue, and the difficulty to make contact with an alternative venue due to hotels being closed.

2) Given the older age group who attend the Festival, our main concern was about how confident older people would feel about travelling long distances to a gathering even if movement and gathering restrictions had been lifted by then.

On a more positive note; we have agreed to host the festival in October 2021, and information of venue and booking will be distributed once we can get in contact with a hotel and secure a venue.

We hope that you will understand our decision and look forward to meeting up for a grand gathering next year